


I'll be but bones and jewels on that day

by jadelennox



Category: Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
Genre: Blank Verse Blog Week, Female Character of Color, Gen, Poetry, Women Being Awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-25
Updated: 2011-04-25
Packaged: 2017-10-18 15:44:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/190464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jadelennox/pseuds/jadelennox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In Harry, with his Yellow Pages ad,<br/>She's found a man who'll only tell her truth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'll be but bones and jewels on that day

**Author's Note:**

> For Blank Verse Blog Week. Title from ["Thou famished grave"](http://math.bu.edu/people/kea/webpage.html#famished), by Edna St. Vincent Millay.
> 
> [](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/)  
> This work by jadelennox is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/).

#### 1\. The making of a stellar journalist.

For Susan's seventh birthday, she's allowed  
To have a slumber party, sleeping bags  
And all. So Odalys and Nina come  
Prepared for cake. That night they see a ghost.

They're all too scared to scream. The weeping man  
Stands phosphorescent, shimmers, vanishes.  
Their gossip stalled, thier laughing stilled, the girls  
Stare frozen. Susan wants to _understand_.

They never speak about their ghostly guest.  
They scatter: Odalys now rational,   
A scientist; and Nina knocking wood  
And hiding from black cats. And Susan scoffs.

There has to be a saner way to cope.  
Denial; superstition; what's between?

#### 2\. She's not the only one who sees, thank God.

For all her confidence, her stubborn pride,  
She often lies awake and frets about  
Her sanity. The Midwestern Arcane’s  
Sole credulous employee. Is she wrong?

When she meets Harry Dresden, Susan’s joy  
Is overwhelming. Proof! All these years  
Of charlatans, and finally she knows  
The world she saw at seven truly _is_.

She watches Harry, asks him all she can.  
His strength and power draw her in, but it’s  
The knowledge he embodies she could love.  
Not skeptic or believer, she seeks truth.

In Harry, with his Yellow Pages ad,  
She's found a man who'll only tell her truth.

#### 3\. And water, water everywhere nor any…

The children smoking weed behind the store,  
The cranky driver of the 80 bus,  
The man whose dachshund's barking up a storm:  
It's blood behind their skin, so hot and sweet.

Her neighbor's pulse beats strongly. Arteries  
And veins delineate a life. A cop  
Stands on the street, redolent with sweet  
Aroma. Susan hasn't tasted. Yet.

And Harry. Harry Dresden, rich with life  
A power no one else can match, his blood  
Electric, nearly _shimmers_ , lightning quick  
As his heart pumps ambrosial liquid through.

She's never wanted anything so much  
As Harry Dresden's blood, thick in her mouth.

#### 4\. It's not enough to know unless she acts.

She thought that all she needed was to know.  
She mocked the séances that Nina runs,  
The astrophysics papers Odalys  
Has published. Open-minded seekers _learn_.

She thought the most to fear was her own death.  
Like CNN reporters hunkered down  
To dodge the falling bombs, she met the Reds  
On their own ground, fearless, seeking truth.

But _life_ is not what Susan's lost. What's gone  
is her humanity. She's lost her job,  
lost Harry. Susan's gone and in her place  
a monster, soldier in an arcane war.

And now they've taken Maggie. This she swears:  
The Red Court reign will fall by her own hand.


End file.
